The Pi Baby Turns 2

Yesterday Piper turned 2.  It hit me pretty hard the night before her birthday when I realized it was her last night as a 1 year old. Then on her real birthday, hours after I had cleaned up the mess left from her day (late last night), it hit me again.  My baby.  My littlest best friend.  My cheerful, silly, spunky, crazy, sweet-as-can-be, independent, cuddly, blonde haired baby girl is officially a "toddler" and not Mama's baby anymore.  Well, she will always be my baby....but you know what I mean.  I let myself become melancholy on their birthdays because I think it's a Mother's Rite.  I looked at the pictures of her birth and remembered how anxiously I awaited the arrival of Lucy's soon-to-be best friend.  I was all sorts of nervous and excited because what if I couldn't love her the way I loved Lucy?  My love for Lucy was downright obsessive.  I have no shame in admitting that I smothered Lucy and breathed in Motherhood with each daily breath.  Lucy was my everything.  How on EARTH could I do that with 2 babies....and how could I do it equally?  There HAD to be give-and-take...right?  WRONG.  No one will ever be able to describe what happens when you have a 2nd baby.  No one can put it into words.  But every Mother reading this just knows.  I thank Heavenly Father for giving me this gift of indescribable love.  I wish there was a better word to label the feelings of motherhood than "love" but there just isn't!  

When it comes to my daughters, I have 3 distinct moments that I can say were, without a doubt, the best moments of my life.  The first was the moment Lucy was placed in my arms after birth and I discovered this high that is Motherhood.  The second was the moment Piper was placed on my chest after birth and my love multiplied so fast that I literally felt as though my heart would burst at the seams.  The 3rd was the night that Lucy met Piper.  My one-and-only met her favorite side-kick.  She looked adoringly at her sister and "ooh'd" and "ahh'd" over her for days.  Watching my first-born baby hold my second-born baby was so beautifully heart-wrenching.  She was as in love as I was it seemed! 

 Fast forward 2 years and here we are.  Bringing breakfast in bed to my sweetie Pi!  She is just the best.  Seriously.  She thought it was SO cool that she was getting breakfast in bed, and because I know Lucy would want to share, I brought 2 forks up and they ate together :)  I swear, they are the Ying to each other's Yang.  What one does, the other copies.  When one feels something, the other feels it too.  I know they're a year and a half apart, but I think they were twins separated in Heaven when I got pregnant with Lucy.  They are as close as 2 little girls can be.  It's more than just a "Sister" relationship.  It's another one of those phenomenons that I can't describe.  They are 100% my biggest blessings in life and everything I ever wanted.  I just worry that someday when I have a 3rd, he or she will feel majorly left out, because their bond is somethin' fierce!

 Anyway, we took Maisy down to Manchester where we went to Build-A-Bear for Piper's birthday.  Of course we left Maisy in the car while we went into the mall, but we still haven't left her home alone and it's an hour drive to the mall so we didn't want to leave her by herself for too many hours for the 1st time. 

 We'd never been to Build-A-Bear before so it was fun for all of us!  The girls were in Heaven!  How cute it was!  A little pricey, which is why we saved it for a birthday, but worth every penny!

We came home and let the girls go crazy with balloons, cake and presents!  I am SO proud of my cake this year because I honestly can NOT bake (remember how Nana helped me with Piper's last year?  I'm just cursed when it comes to baking!).  But I managed to pull off a pretty cute teddy bear cake for the Pi Baby- no cake pan, no instructions!  I was trying to come up with some sort of theme...and since we went to Build-A-Bear I decided to make a Teddy Bear cake to tie it all together.  It took me a total of 5 hours, and I hated every second of it. Haha! But it's like a hard workout.  You HATE doing it, but love the feeling of being done.  It was cool to look at and present to Miss Pi.  She loved it.  Lucy did too!  I guess I can say it was worth it! :)

Lucy kept running around last night exclaiming "THIS IS THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!" Haha, I'm not sure she quite understood that it was Piper's birthday and not hers.  But that's ok :)

 I had to get a few pictures with the Birthday Girl!

Once the day was over, as I said, I looked through my pictures of Piper's first 24 hours on earth and bawled my eyes out.  She is such a sweet spirit. She came to us with a literal light in her eyes; they always looked like they were actually lit up and I know it was just her sweet spirit shining through.  She has been the easiest baby from day 1!  She loves life and she loves people.  She's gaining more independence daily and is starting to like to do things her own way without Mommy's help.  But she's still so affectionate and loveable.  She has lost almost all her baby fat (look at her arms in the pictures where she's eating her cake); she's skinny these days!  I miss squishing her, but she still has her sweet cheeks and still loves to kiss me all day long, when I don't even ask for kisses.  She literally woke me up with kisses this morning when she came and jumped on my bed.  She was kissing my face everywhere.  Can you think of a sweeter way to wake up?  I can't.  I love that baby with all my heart.  I love her determination to figure things out, I love that she loves to learn, I love that she knows almost all of her alphabet letters and enjoys playing with educational toys just as much as her dolls and stuffed animals.  I love that she will hug and kiss you at any time.  I love that she still loves to take naps and never fights it.  She just lays down and sleeps. I love how big her personality is! I love that she shakes strangers hands and is extremely outgoing and friendly.  I love that she adores her big sister.  I love that she's a complete Daddy's girl. I love how EVERY SINGLE time I put her shirt on in the morning she says "BOO!" when her head pops out, even if she's cranky. I love that she loves spicy food!  I love that she laughs and sqeals all day long.  I love that she has a tender-heart and kisses you if you're sad.  I love that she follows Maisy around all day and tells her to chase her.  I love her pudgy fingers and how she squints her eyes and scrunches her nose when she laughs.  I love that she is so talkative these days.  I love that she LOVES Minnie Mouse and Olaf. I love that she loves to sing and dance and is constantly doing one or the other (just like her big Sis!) 

I am crazy amounts of obsessed with two little girls and my life honestly feels complete.  

Happy birthday my Sweet P.